history

Rocball is a game derivative of volleyball with its roots of play founded the in the Meso-American sport of Tlachtli. The actual game of Tlachtli involved passing a ball from side to side over a low wall without it touching the ground. If the ball fell to the ground, a team would win a point and vice versa. If you struck the ball with an incorrect part of the body, you could lose points for your team.

However, the real purpose of the game was to get the ball through the hoop on a wall above either side of the court. The team that did this won, irrespective of the current score of the game. As a game, Tlachtli has often been described as a combination between volleyball and soccer.

After the creation of volleyball in 1895 and prior to 1980, athletes who played this kind of team net sport played under two different general restrictions. In volleyball, players were not allowed to hit the ball with any part of the body below the waist. In the Asian sport of sepak takrau players were not allowed to use their arms or hands to touch or hit a ball.

In the Micronesian sport of Rocball, players are allowed to hit the ball with any part of the body as long as a player doesn’t carry or hold the ball. And, as in Tlachtli, there is a situation in which a team can lose a point and both sports have scoring areas other than the court floor: The sport of Tlachtli had vertical loops 8 or 10 feet high on a wall above either side of the court, and Rocball has vertical areas for scoring with six by twelve foot goals located ten feet behind each court.